The Ground after the Floods, New Orleans East 10/05
Did a disaster thrust itself into your life?
Are you making your way through loss to a new life?
Are you interested in learning from the human experience of disaster and trauma?
Do you love New Orleans and her people and care about the city’s heritage and future?
If you said yes to any of the above, I’m glad you found Katrina Reverb and hope these pages have something to say to you – something to spur your thoughts, help in your healing, and maybe somehow at least in some small way make things better. I’m one New Orleanian (well actually, one displaced New Orleanian now in Austin Texas—identity has become so complicated since the disaster.), who after four years living amidst anger and loss, decided I needed to flip the cards myself and get back to life. Well, that’s what I say on good days. On bad days, I just try my best to plod forward and not fall between the cracks.
My name is Donna. I grew up in New Orleans, in a subdivision in New Orleans East called Pines Village. Six years before Katrina, I moved back to my family home in Pines Village to care for my mother during an extended illness. The floods from Katrina washed away that little home in which my mother lived and died. The floods destroyed my entire neighborhood, caused my part-time and full-time jobs to disappear, and spurred the breakup of my primary relationship. In terms of symbolic capital, the disaster robbed me of my social networks and my self-confidence as well as many of the beliefs that provided my life with meaning. To boot, the experience of Katrina left me with various symptoms of PTSD with which to contend. Yeah, it sucks, but I’m working on making things better.
Despite the paucity of blogs and other web resources dealing with the aftermath of disasters in people’s lives, I know there must be others out there like me, healing and hurting, scared but searching—folks from New Orleans and other disaster-threatened locales, traumatized but still marching forward. Katrina Reverb is my attempt to reach out, take a chance, and perhaps create community and fellowship with others.
Katrina Reverb is a blog so I am the primary author and editor. I plan to post to KR at least once a week, on Mondays. My education and professional background is in cultural anthropology and I’ve studied creative writing since the disaster so you can expect those interests to inform KR’s tone and content. My early posts will address a variety of topics having to do with the experience of disaster. Examples offered will be from my experiences as well as those of other survivors I’ve interviewed or with whom I have close relationships.
In my wildest dreams, KR could inspire greater empathy toward disaster victims and save threatened communities. However, if I simply find an outlet for my writing and a place for healing while connecting with a few others, I’ll be thrilled!
I invite readers to comment on this blog. Email me at katrinareverb@gmail.com and let me know what you think. Feel free to make suggestions concerning future discussions. I also invite readers to send me stories, poetry, or other writing about your disaster experiences if you’re interested in having them posted on KR. I can’t promise I’ll post everything but I can promise to treat your submissions and you with respect and care.
Should commentary and emails rise to a sufficient level, I’d love to monitor a communal / group site where we could dialogue on topics concerning the personal and social aftermath of disaster. For now, however, let me say:
Welcome to Katrina Reverb!
Please come again and tell your friends to join the discussion!
Upcoming Posts
“A Total Disaster” detailing the types of loss survivors experience and contextualizing the Katrina Disaster as experienced by New Orleanians
Being There – Excerpts from my Memoir, Discussion of the Emotional Content of Disasters
A Tribute to New Orleans Media: Listening to WWL News Radio during the disaster
Watching the Destruction of Your Home Live on TV
Going Back – Excerpts from my Memoir, Discussion of the Emotional Content of Disasters
The Significance of Home / Dreams of Home / Being Haunted by Destroyed Places
Oops, My PTSD is showing – The Struggle to Reenter the “Normal” World
The Meaning of Things, particularly Lost Possessions
Short Stories inspired by the Katrina Disaster
Our nation is full of lost souls and forgotten people – how we can make connections
